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CounterPunch
November
11, 2002
Live from Baghdad
Trading With the Enemy
by JEREMY SCAHILL
BAGHDAD. Considering the events of the past several months,
investing in Iraq wouldn't sound like the safest bet. But the
threat of war didn't prevent an impressive turnout at the annual
Baghdad International Trade Fair that wrapped up on Sunday. Representatives
of nearly 1,200 businesses from 49 countries came to display
their products in the strongest showing at the fair since the
onset of the 1991 Gulf War.
There were no American companies present
and only one from Washington's junior partner Britain. Significantly,
Iraq's former adversaries Saudi Arabia and Iran both had large
pavilions. Western Europe was also well represented. France,
Iraq's largest western trade partner, had 81 companies housed
at its massive pavilion.
"The importance of this fair is
that it is a clear message that despite the risk of bombing,
all these companies and all these countries still believe in
peace," said Jihad Feghali, the managing Director of France's
Nutris Company.
Feghali was one of the most political
businessmen at the fair. In 2000 he organized the first humanitarian
flight from Paris to Baghdad in protest of the sanctions. He
knows well how difficult it is to do business with Iraq. His
company sells industrial equipment and biomedical systems. He
deals in goods that have been consistently banned by Washington.
Feghali says that the US dominated sanctions committee at the
UN that reviews contracts between Iraq and international companies
is constantly delaying and holding up his contracts for review
of dual-usage i.e. military value.
"You can take anything for dual-usage,"
Feghali told <Iraqjournal.org>. "Baby milk can be
dual-usage, anything can be dual-usage." He points to a
contract his company has for developing a milk bottling line,
saying the sanctions committee has held up the contract for more
than 2 years.
"A more civil contract you cannot
have," he says. "[The committee] asked lots of questions
about the pumps, the pipes, lots of things like that. I don't
know how you can bottle milk without pumps. Maybe these pumps
can launch scud [missiles] over other countries; I'm not military,
so I don't know. We tried to give explanations but we lose time
and we lose money and we lose effort and its not the right way
of helping people to save the world economy."
Feghali also said that the sanctions
create logistical nightmares for contracts, even after they are
approved. Nutris has been selling Iraq cancer medications with
isotopes that have a shelf life of 3-4 days. "It is very
tough for us to supply the hospitals with these products without
using the airport and no airplanes go into Saddam Airport from
Europe, so we have to bring the medicines to Jordan and then
by truck overnight to Iraq. The products reach Baghdad after
2 or 3 days_sometimes quite at the end of their shelf-life."
These stories were repeated at booth
after booth at the fair. Because of the sanctions, Iraq is not
permitted to buy anything directly. Its oil revenues_generated
under the so-called oil-for food program-- are put into an escrow
bank account abroad and Baghdad must then apply for permission
to use the funds to purchase goods or services on the world market.
Over the last decade, Washington and Britain have consistently
blocked such items as pencils, chlorine and ambulances.
"Something like an incubator would
take one year for getting the approval," said Daniel Le
Borgne, CEO of the French company Cercomex, which also deals
in medical equipment.
Le Borgne began doing business in Iraq
more than 20 years ago. He says his primary reason for trading
with Iraq remains profit. But since the imposition of sanctions
in 1990, everything has gotten much more difficult. In fact,
Le Borgne said he had to get permission from the US dominated
sanctions committee to showcase the display model of his latest
incubator. He said the incubator needed to be checked for possible
military usage.
With war quite possibly on the horizon,
many of the medical vendors at the fair told <Iraqjournal.org>
that Baghdad is increasing its purchases of medical supplies
and emergency equipment. But the sanctions are hindering the
preparations for responding to future destruction in the country.
Outside France's pavilion at the fair, the French auto-giant
Peugeot had new ambulances on display. But company spokespeople
said the sanctions committee has put significant limitations
on the number Baghdad can import.
"Its something very, very important,
very needful for the health organizations in Iraq," said
Peugeot representative Jamal Salm. "But there are less than
1,000 ambulances in Iraq, 600 of them Peugeots. The World Health
Organization evaluated the need for a territory like Iraq at
3,500 ambulances."
Several businesses expressed fears of
a massive attack on Iraq in the next several months. "It's
is frightening a lot of ship owners," said Henry Delannoy,
a Senior Vice President at the shipping giant CMA CGM, the world's
6th largest marine shipping company.
His massive freightliners bring goods
through the Arabian Gulf into southern Iraq, a definite frontline
in any US attack on the country. "Nobody knows what will
happen to our ships; nobody knows what will happen to our containers,
so it is a risky area and this is why the competition is much
less than other areas."
Delannoy says that unlike other shippers,
he is not worried about his freightliners in the event of a full-scale
war. In fact his company's ships played a role during the Gulf
War. "We lost no ships. On the contrary, we put our ships
at the disposal of US forces at the time."
While there were several businesses that
said trading with Iraq was a political statement, most said their
motivation was profit, saying they would do business in Iraq
regardless of who is president. The Iraqi government hailed the
massive turnout at this year's trade festival as a great success.
For them it represents the culmination of years of work repairing
relations with most countries in the world. Iraq has signed free
trade agreements with several countries in the region and has
resumed trade with Saudi Arabia.
But both Baghdad and its growing list
of trade partners know that their future in Iraq depends on decisions
being made in Washington. And for now, that future is very uncertain.
Jeremy Scahill
is an independent journalist, who reports for the nationally
syndicated Radio and TV show Democracy Now! He is currently based
in Baghdad, Iraq, where he and filmmaker Jacquie Soohen are coordinating
www.iraqjournal.org,
the only website providing regular independent reporting from
the ground in Baghdad.
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